The U.N. Human Rights Council on Friday shelved a controversial report
on Israel's recent war in the Gaza Strip, averting a crisis in the push
to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks but potentially scuttling
efforts to initiate broad war-crimes prosecutions over the conflict.

Palestinian officials dropped their support for a scheduled Friday vote
on the report after intense lobbying from the Obama administration,
which argued that action on the study would "backfire" by driving
Israel away from possible peace talks and strengthening opposition
among Western countries worried about similar investigations of their
soldiers.